Fellow home-bound humans,

I hope this finds you well. I have never meant that more than now - and I mean it in all ways.

Today, I bring you music for your home. This collection is called “Wild House” and it’s from Daniel Wright.

Dan is our partner at Echo Magic, my bandmate and father of our goddaughter. So, you could say we know each other pretty well.

This album marks the beginning of a new chapter for me in a couple ways.

First, this is a recording of the very first night Dan, Scott Hirsch and I worked together and the groundwork for what would become Echo Magic began to be laid down.

Now I’m one of the partners at Echo Magic and this is the first official release on our label arm. We’re of course always interested in what’s called “up-streaming” our work to the record labels and institutions we know and love — but sometimes it makes sense to have a little imprint of your own. So now we do.

"Wild House" was recorded almost 2 years ago. We tracked nearly everything live and we approached the music with the intention of being peaceful, inviting and gentle to listen to. I loved the way Dan ran these sessions, and I think the intention that he set really can be felt.

I listen back now and hear how well-rehearsed we were - not even just on this material, but because we were playing all the time (you could do that then), there’s a certain ease to our musical communication that I am so glad we captured.

Anyway.

You can and should listen to Wild House, buy Wild House and share Wild House.

Because you won’t get to see Wild House live for the foreseeable, I’m going to take another moment to introduce the band. Feel free to stop here if you’re the type that goes to the bar when the drummer gets on the mic or read on for effusive praise and occasional insight.

I’m playing the drums on this set - actually, I'm playing our friend Orpheo McCord's drums. They were the drums that happened to be set up at Scott's studio at the time and sometimes it's inspiring to just play the drums in front of you instead of being that guy that brings all his own stuff and gets it set up just so. So, a belated thank you to Orpheo.

During the session we were joined by just an embarrassment of talent - Ethan Glazer plays keys and sings - I believe most of the harmonies were sang live. Listen to how they sing as one! That’s so special. It’s paranormal.

Scott Hirsch, the founder of Echo Magic, plays bass and engineered and mixed this. And my oh my did he engineer and mix this. Scott is a naturalist with a keen ear for the cosmic in everything he does.

But! Scott doesn’t play bass on every song - Eric Sullivan, our former Radio Skies bandmate and one of the Great Guitar Players picked up bass on Beyond These Walls and just laid down the most slinky, ridiculous groove. We had so much fun playing that one.

There were very few overdubs and I wasn’t there for Mateo or Itamar’s work, but I was there when Karl Hunter brought his saxophone over to my backyard studio and just blew our minds with his command of that instrument.

I told you - effusive praise, occasional insight. It's been a while since I talked to anyone.

Finally, one of the great joys of my life has been consistently getting to work with the design talent of my childhood friend Aaron Taylor-Waldman. Aaron has designed almost everything I’ve ever worked on, including the logo and design language for Echo Magic itself. He built this floral paradise around a beautiful photograph by our other Echo Magic partner Brendan Willing James. This one sits proudly on my digital shelf. I hope it will grace yours too.

Check out Dan's instagram for links to all these fine humans and their work plus a cool animation celebrating the record.

Ok. Back to it. Stay home, stay safe, stay hopeful, stay sharp.